Literacy Speaks Volumes

The title of this blog is the title of a short story by Ray Bradbury. The story is set on Mars in the future after an atomic war causes many people to flee Earth in hopes of colonizing a new planet. While on the planet, a nuclear bomb destroys New York City and any space ships that could possibly carry the humans back to Earth. The main character is Harry Bittering who, along with his wife Cora and three sons, are among those most recent inhabitants of Mars. Harry begins to notice some unsettling (to him) changes taking place in his surroundings and to other characters. The cow grows a third horn and the grass becomes purple~but it seems to only bother Harry. The other Earthlings are beginning to refer to a visible mountain range by its Martian name and even his children want to be called by their Martian names. All of this terrifies Harry so much that he begins building a rocket ship to carry him and his family back to Earth. But Harry eventually abandons the idea as his family...

How do you make a good impression? In the short story "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto, Victor and Michael enter seventh grade a little anxiously~maybe with a little trepidation. Their conversation steers itself toward making a good impression on the girls~for Victor there is one girl in particular whom he wants to impress: Theresa.  Michael and Victor each have different ideas on how to impress girls. Like seventh graders everywhere, Victor and Michael are trying to fit in like everyone else. For this lesson I will focus on the Common Core Standard RL (Reading Literature) 7.6 Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text. This story lends itself well to this particular standard because it will be easier for the students to compare and contrast the characters' actions and their development. This lesson will take anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes to teach allowing time for silent reading and writing. Before th...